The Swinub Line

Swinub
The Pig Pokémon
Type: Ice/Ground
Official Registration #: 220
Entry: A small, pig-like pokémon known for its sensitive nose. This nose can detect practically anything from quite a distance away, including truffles, treasure, and buried hot springs. It runs headlong towards any scent it finds interesting and, upon locating its source, instantly digs in an attempt to unbury it. This is unfortunate, not only because of its tendency to run into anything standing between it and its goal but also because of the part where it, a ground-type, sometimes finds buried hot springs.

Piloswine
The Swine Pokémon
Type: Ice/Ground
Official Registration #: 221
Entry: The evolved form of swinub, by battle experience. Led by its incredibly sensitive nose, this pokémon runs headlong towards odors it finds interesting, just as its pre-evolved form does. However, given the fact that this is a four-foot-tall, 123-pound pig with fur that obscures its eyes and foot-long tusks, the act of running headlong into the things between it and its goal becomes more unfortunate for anything in its way, rather than for the piloswine itself.

Mamoswine
The Twin Tusk Pokémon
Type: Ice/Ground
Official Registration #: 473
Entry: The evolved form of piloswine, by battle experience if the piloswine knows Ancient Power. Fossil evidence has shown that mamoswine has existed on the planet for over ten thousand years. However, mamoswine do not occur in the wild; they only exist as the evolved form of specially trained piloswine. There are two theories as to why this is. First and more scientific, temperatures rose over ten thousand years ago, resulting in a climate far too warm for mamoswine to exist. Second and less scientific, one only has to look at swinub and piloswine’s shared habits to hazard a really good guess involving mamoswine’s bulk, its unlikelihood to be adept at stopping, and the numbers of sharp glacial cliffs during its time.

Stunfisk

Stunfisk
The Trap Pokémon
Type: Ground/Electric
Official Registration #: 618
Entry: A sizable flounder-like pokémon known to hide in the muddy expanses of marshlands and heaths. Blending in with the ground, stunfisk is virtually undetectable until it’s stepped on, at which point it delivers a strong electric shock directly into its victim. Why it does this is still a mystery to behaviorists, particularly given the fact that a stunfisk’s body has been found to be durable enough to withstand hundreds of pounds of pressure. The only real clue scientists have for the answer to this mystery lies in the fact that stunfisk smiles with extreme pleasure as it delivers electric shocks … a fact that has dampened quite a few scientists’ curiosities, to be completely frank.

The Nidorino Line

Nidoran (male)
The Poison Pin Pokémon
Type: Poison
Official Registration #: 32
Entry: A small, rabbit-like pokémon. An interesting fact about nidoran is that the first pokémon ever to be recorded using the move Poison Pin were members of this and its sister species, hence why they’re both described as “poison pin” pokémon in the pokédex. Of course, the story of how Poison Pin was discovered is equally interesting. Evidently, male nidoran are very protective of female nidoran, and female nidoran have a tendency to fire Poison Pin in tandem with their mates when alarmed. Suffice to say, this writer’s father learned very quickly about the value of antidotes.

Nidorino
The Poison Pin Pokémon
Type: Poison
Official Registration #: 33
Entry: The evolved form of male nidoran, by battle experience. It is interesting to note that nidorina and nidorino have co-adapted for the express purpose of defending different parts of their shared territory. While it is the nidorina’s job to protect the burrow and young via defensive maneuvers, it is the nidorino’s job to protect the general area with highly aggressive offensive maneuvers. Additionally, nidorino are specially adapted to do this job well; while the barbs of many other members of the nidoran family are small and retractable, the barbs of nidorino are, at minimum, six-inch-long venomous horns of danger. This in itself is not necessarily terrifying, considering the fact that many pokémon possess fangs or horns of unreasonable lengths, but in nidorino’s case, these horns are coupled with a nasty temper and a rather unfortunate tendency to charge at anything that is not a member of the nidoran family.

Nidoking
The Drill Pokémon
Type: Poison/Ground
Official Registration #: 34
Entry: The evolved form of nidorino, by exposure to moon stone. True to his name, nidoking rule over nidoran territory, much as a human king would rule over his kingdom: with an iron fist, a penchant for violence, and an extreme fondness for imperialism. Whereas nidoqueen tend to be more focused on protecting their habitats by standing their ground and fighting off intruders, nidoking seem more content on fighting literally anything short of a nidoqueen and her young. This includes other nidoking, anything with a type advantage to nidoking, inanimate objects that happen to be in the way of a nidoking, and bystanding researchers traveling along roads that cut through nidoking territories. It should also be noted that although nidoking are referred to as the drill pokémon (which is an allusion to its drill-like horn), this creature’s preferred form of attack is by smashing things with his heavy, armor-plated tail, an appendage so powerful it is capable of smashing through the engine of a jeep … which this writer mentions as an off-handed example that has subsequently and incidentally been included in expense reports to the Pokémon Symposium.

Any notable encounters with the Nidoran line, Bill?

Ah, the Nidoran line. This may be a bit complicated because the male and female lines are so vastly different from one another that they’re officially considered to be separate species, so I’m afraid I’ll have to cover them on two separate days. Below is the first, and tomorrow will be the second.

Nidoran (female)
The Poison Pin Pokémon
Type: Poison
Official Registration #: 29
Entry: A small, rabbit-like pokémon. An interesting fact about nidoran is that the first pokémon ever to be recorded using the move Poison Pin were members of this and its brother species, hence why they’re both described as “poison pin” pokémon in the pokédex. Of course, the story of how Poison Pin was discovered is equally interesting. Evidently, male nidoran are very protective of female nidoran, and female nidoran have a tendency to fire Poison Pin in tandem with their mates when alarmed.

Nidorina
The Poison Pin Pokémon
Type: Poison
Official Registration #: 30
Entry: The evolved form of female nidoran, by battle experience. Upon evolution, nidorina and their brother evolution lose their ability to breed. However, make no mistake: nidorina still possess mothering instincts—such as, specifically, the tendency to unsheathe their barbs and emit ultrasonic cries when anything threatens their burrow and young. As a note, what the pokédex says about nidorina’s docile temperament is true except in the above mentioned case, but the trouble with pokédex entries is that they never accurately describe how frequently exceptions to the rule occur. For example, in this case, yes, nidorina are docile, but it is highly useful to know that all routes where nidorina thrive are literally covered in nidorina burrows. Thus, when traversing routes through nidorina territory, bring antidotes. A lot of antidotes.

Nidoqueen
The Drill Pokémon
Type: Poison/Ground
Official Registration #: 31
Entry: The evolved form of nidorina, by exposure to moon stone. Nidoqueen are large, bulky pokémon covered in rock-hard plates. Both nidoqueen’s size and skin are highly useful in defending its young from threats, which it does with pride and enthusiasm. On the positive side, moon stone is very rarely found in nidorina habitats, making nidoqueen a very rare evolution to find naturally. However, on the negative side, nidorina territories really only need one nidoqueen to defend them, and that nidoqueen very rarely travels far from human roads. Luckily, hospitals are likewise very rarely far from nidoqueen territories.

Hey, Bill. Have you ever come in contact with the Krookodile line?

Yes indeed! I take it this is meant to be a request? If so:

Sandile
The Desert Croc Pokémon
Type: Ground/Dark
Official Registration #: 551
Entry: Sandile are a crocodile-like pokémon with two notable adaptations for life in the desert: skin the color of sand and the unique habit of traveling across the dunes with most of their bodies buried. Because of both adaptations, sandile are extremely difficult to spot as they move across the Unova desert, but despite this, they are also timid, easily panicked pokémon that have a tendency to snap at whatever unwittingly walks too close for comfort with their sharp jaws, regardless of whether or not that threat can actually see them. Thus, the writer has only one piece of advice for anyone who intends on traveling through the Unova desert: wear boots.

Krokorok
The Desert Croc Pokémon
Type: Ground/Dark
Official Registration #: 552
Entry: The evolved form of sandile, by battle experience. Krokorok are very similar to their evolutionary predecessor, save for three key differences: size, the tendency to travel in packs of three or more, and the fact that they will snap at hapless travelers not out of self-defense but instead because they enjoy toying with anyone who has the audacity of traveling through their territory. Thus, should you wish to travel through the deeper parts of the Unova desert where krokorok tend to nest, the writer has additional words of advice for you: wear heavier boots and bring a water-type.

Krookodile
The Intimidation Pokémon
Type: Ground/Dark
Official Registration #: 553
Entry: The evolved form of krokorok, by battle experience. Despite the fact that its predecessors call the Unova desert home, Krookodile are not native to that region but instead Australia, where the harsh environs have forced the local krokorok to evolve into larger, more aggressive forms with jaws capable of smashing through cars. This does not seem to faze the Australians, who seem to have made it a sport to find and wrestle wild krookodile to the ground. In light of this, the writer has only one last word of advice for his readers: don’t go to Australia.